Leicester City’s trip to Madrid is fast turning into a PR disaster for the club and, by extension, for English football generally. There’d been an awful lot of goodwill shown to Leicester in advance of the match, with the Madrid press often labelling English fans hooligans before they even arrive.
The Foxes and their fairytale got a nicer welcome but it soon turned sour as Plaza Mayor once again became a mess of broken bottles, drunken fans, and baton-first police trying to control a situation.
The more stories come out of Madrid, the worse it sounds. Last year PSV Eindhoven taunted beggars in Plaza Mayor, an incident which brought shame on the club. Images and videos from Madrid show some Leicester fans did similar.
There’s video to prove it.
Los hinchas del Leicester arrasaron ayer la Plaza Mayor. Así fueron los enfrentamientos https://t.co/Lm1gzsHe35 pic.twitter.com/kW3MyHGK7b
— EL PAÍS (@el_pais) April 13, 2017
It’s something which also happened in Lille during Euro 2016, and the shame brought on PSV last year, and widespread media coverage, seems to have had little impact as a deterrent.
El Pais report that until the section of Leicester City fans determined to cause trouble arrived, their fellow Foxes followers had been enjoying Plaza Mayor: ‘English families, who tasted beer, calamares, and menus of the day in peace’
But when other sections arrived, started singing confrontational songs and let off flares, the comparatively small number of police in Plaza Mayor moved forward. Those police were met with bottles and cans, and were forced back, and then reinforcements arrived and they charged.
The singing of songs about Gibraltar, including insults to Spain and the Spanish, will have done little to help the image of Leicester City fans in Spain.
AS report there have been dozens of injuries, including to police officers, and arrests are in double figures.
